Seven Sacred Pools and Pipiwai Trail

The two things I heard the most about before going to Maui were the Highway to Hana and the Seven Sacred Pools/Pipiwai trail hike. Of course, we did both. They are “must see” attractions after all.

You can read about our experience on the Highway to Hana HERE.

The Pipiwai hiking trail is one of the main attractions on that side of the island. Every blog post you read will tell you how crazy busy it is and that you must get there early to avoid a crowd. Since we camped overnight in Haleakala National Park and could drive to the trail head in about 2 minutes this was no problem for us. We started the hike at 6:40 am and no surprise we were the only ones around. 

The path forks almost immediately, one way leading to the Seven Sacred Pools and the other to the Pipiwai Trail and waterfall.

We did the Seven Sacred Pools in about 10 minutes the previous night and I have to tell you that they were very lack lustre, especially considering how hyped up they are. There wasn’t a lot of flowing water, everything looked a bit stagnant and due to safety issues the area is only able to be viewed from occasional openings in the path.

On the other hand, the Pipiwai trail was quite lovely. The trail is about 7 kilometres roundtrip and takes you through plenty of different terrains.

It starts as a regular treed walking path and morphs the deeper you get. Rocks and tree roots act as stairs, crossing bridges allows a glimpse of the sun on an otherwise shaded trail and boardwalks keep the walk comfortable.

We found a very large Banyan tree whose cover may as well have been a constructed roof, walked through bamboo so thick we could barely see the sky and eventually emerged with a view of the 200 foot waterfall.

Having never seen anything like it I gasped out loud while taking in my first glimpse of the fall. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get anywhere near the base of the fall because the surrounding area is apparently unstable and therefore unsafe.

Since we couldn’t do anything other than stand and look, we didn’t stay too long before deciding to start the walk back. I hadn’t realized before but a lot of the walk on the way to the fall was uphill and so going back took about half as long. By 8:20 we were back at the car and had only seen two other couples the entire time, both on our way back out.

Considering it costs $20.00 to get into the national park I’m not sure these hikes are worth the money or 2.5 hours (one-way) of driving. If this was the only reason we did the drive I would be pretty disappointed. Fortunately for us our camping was also included in the $20 and we were able to separate the drive into 2 days.